Who they be:
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:39PM The Ben and Skin Show is closing in on being a decade old. But their creative partnership goes back further than that and their friendship is even older still. They began their “media” careers when Ben was selling television advertising and convinced the GM of his station that he should give a few minutes of the Mavericks Pre-Game show to he and his old friend Skin, despite the fact that Skin had a weird name and looked like an anemic Chris Elliott. It worked. The station liked what the tandem was doing and Ben and Skin felt like they had successfully conned someone. That launched an association between Ben and Skin and the Mavs that took them through a bizarre journey of part-time radio work doing pre and post game shows before eventually landing them in their full-time 9-noon slot on 103.3 FM ESPN.
The radio show was a great way to launch their 30s and more reliable than the way they launched their 20s – as a rap group. Ben and Skin started recording rap songs in 1991 with another of their high school buddies and before long they became fixtures on the Dallas hip-hop scene landing opening slots on gigs with artists like House of Pain, Naughty by Nature and MC Lyte. At the same time they dominated unemployment, recreational sports and couch activities including video games and fast-food consumption. Hard to believe they could top those achievements but their radio work has almost surpassed that solid body of work. But just how did these cats become friends – a friendship that is 2 ½ decades strong? Well it’s a classic story, really.
It starts when a lonely boy named Ben Rogers moves with his mother from Newark, New Jersey, to Richardson, Texas. Their apartment's handyman is an eccentric but kindly and humble Okinawan immigrant named Skin.
Upon arrival in his new town, Ben befriends Ali, a pretty high school cheerleader, at the same time angering her arrogant ex-boyfriend, Mosley – who just happens to be the best student at the Cobra Kai dojo. There he is taught an unethical, vicious form of martial arts. Ben knows a little karate from books and a few classes at the YMCA, but Mosley easily defeats him in their first encounter. Thereafter, Mosley and his gang of Cobra Kai students torment Ben at every opportunity.